The Vineyard Blog

Join us in the Vineyard! Visit here for regular updates, teaching, videos and inside information about what's happening at Vine of David.

 

Teaching

Elul: The Month of Repentance

Elul: The Month of Repentance
I am My Beloved's and My Beloved is Mine

[Chaim Yedidah] Ben Yisrael AKA: Theophilus Lucky (1890) Reprinted from the Edut L'Yisrael, Volume 4, Elul 5650 (1890), pp 91-97. Translated to English, edited and adapted by Vine of David, 2007.

Chaim Yedidah (Theophilus Lucky) became a believer near the end of the nineteenth century at which time he began to publish a Hebrew periodical written by Jewish believers in Yeshua entitled Edut L'Yisrael, "Testimony to Israel: Testifying about the Torah, the manner, and all of the characteristics of the Nation." It was a Zionist publication for Jewish believers in Yeshua and about Jewish believers in Yeshua.

Elul and Repentance
This month is the sixth after the month of the exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt. Its name, which the Children of Israel brought up from Babylon, is Elul. The Scriptures call it "the sixth"; only Nehemiah calls it Elul.

The word Elul (אלול) is an acrostic formed of four Hebrew words from Song of Songs combined together in this way: ani ledodi vedodi li (אני לדודי ודודי לי), "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" (Song of Songs 6:3). How appropriate are these words! So it is, for the days of the month of Elul are days of repentance. They are days of compassion and grace, days of love, days of intimacy--so say many early and late sages and scribes (of blessed memory) in their books. If we repent, the Holy One, blessed is He, satiates us with grace. If a man declares, "I am my beloved's," it is certain that [God] will likewise respond, "and my beloved is mine."

Before the High Holidays, it is the duty of every son of Israel to awaken himself and to look around himself and to make an accounting of himself. How good is the counsel of the Sages! For there is nothing in this world as good as repentance. Please turn, O Israel, please turn to the LORD, your God. Indeed, a voice is calling to you from above. The gates of repentance are forever open.

The words of Rabbi Eliezer produce a good fragrance like a bundle of spices. His disciples once asked him, "How shall we do repentance and live?" Rabbi Eliezer answered and said, "the LORD will answer on the day of trouble [Psalm 20:1], as it is said [in Song of Songs 5:4], "My beloved sent out his hand through the opening, and my feelings were aroused for him." So too, the LORD stretches out His hand to us and awakens us during the season--the season of intimacy--so that we will repent and live. So said the holy Yochanan, "God is love, and we love Him, for He first loved us" (1 John 4:8, 19). The LORD declares, "Return to Me, and I will return to you" (Malachi 3:7).

Even if our iniquities have gone above our heads and our guilt has grown as high as heaven, the Holy One, blessed be He, declares, "Do not fear. Even if [your sins] are up to the firmament, if you repent, I will forgive. If you repent, I will receive you not only [into the lower levels of heaven] but even up to the throne of glory." The final redemption of Israel is dependent upon nothing if not on repentance. "All that I want from you," says the Holy One, blessed be He, "is that you would but seek me and live."

The Shofar in the Month of Elul
The shofar is blown daily throughout the month of Elul to alert our hearts to repent, for the Day of the LORD is near. The first day of the month of Elul has come. The sound of the elegies and wailing which we heard on the Ninth of Av still echoes in our ears. Our heart is still not quieted from all the troubles which our eyes read in the books of Lamentations on that day. And behold, we still have sorrow; still our hearts are broken; fright and terror are still before our eyes.

Behold, the first day of the month of Elul has arrived with fanfare and noise, and it reminds us that it will not be many days until the "day of judgment" will have come. The custom of Israel in the lands of the dispersion is to sound the shofar every single weekday from the first of the month until it is ended. Those who are very devout and pious also sit in fasting for many days during this month. A tradition from the mouth of the Sages has it that on the first day of Elul, Moses was about to ascend Mount Sinai a second time, after having broken the first tablets. The LORD told Moses to sound a shofar across the entire camp to proclaim and announce that he was ascending the mountain a second time, lest they go astray again and make a molten calf as they did the first time. And Moses did so.

Therefore we also blast the shofar every first day of Elul and we continue to do so for 40 days. We blow the shofar each day until the tenth of the seventh month has ended [i.e. Yom Kippur] because Moses descended from Sinai the second time on the tenth of the month of Tishrei.

Just as the children of Israel were sitting in fasting and affliction [repenting and awaiting Moses' return], so too many now sit in fasting and affliction several days during this month. If it was not that our generation is weak in strength many would sit in fasting for all forty days.

The Days of Ninevah and the Captive Woman
The days of repentance are like the days of Ninevah. "Another forty days and Nineveh will be overturned," Jonah proclaimed. But they believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast, and they clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashes--from the greatest of them to the least of them. God saw and consoled them. He withheld the calamity that He had said that He would do to them.

The Sages also appointed forty days of repentance. Thirty days to prepare the soul, to search out his ways and to awaken the heart, and ten days to do true repentance. These are the ten days from the Day of Judgment [Rosh Hashanah] until the Day of Atonement [Yom Kippur] and forgiveness.

The soul can be compared to the captive woman described in Deuteronomy 21. Just as the woman taken captive in battle is given a month to mourn for her father and mother, so to the soul is given a month of days for weeping--the month of Elul. That is why a man weeps and supplicates before the LORD all the days of this month. He blows the shofar each evening and morning to startle his heart and to awaken himself to do something so that he may escape the coming wrath.

Awakening the Soul
When giving the reason for the commandment to blow the shofar, Rambam [Maimonides the medieval codifier of Jewish law] said that the sound is meant to be a warning to the heart. The sound of blasting that goes out from the shofar is a voice. The voice speaks to the man who hurries down the wide way that leads to Sheol and Abaddon. It says, "Stand still for a moment and consider your deeds, for the day of judgment that none can withstand is near." It is the voice that wakes up the sinner from the coma of sin.

Behold! The heart of the man does not find rest until he rests in the LORD. He does not find rest until he knows that he has passed from death to life, and that the LORD has forgiven all of his sins. Long ago in Israel, when we were still upon our soil and the Temple was in its place, we were bringing near burnt offering and sacrifice. Now the House [of God] is destroyed and the place of the altar is a desolate hill. Burnt offering has ceased, and there is no sacrifice to bring near. There is no sweet savor for the LORD. Now there is fasting and affliction in the place of sacrifice, and prayer and supplication as a substitute for burnt offering. Therefore we weep and lament on this month according to the counsel of our great ones, the luminaries of our eyes.

Why Are We Still in Exile?
But why will the LORD not turn to our cry right now? Surely there are in our generations many of our Jewish brethren absorbed in fasting and prayer. Every day we hear the sound of the shofar going forth, and the alarm in our hearts increases each day. We lift our eyes to the LORD. Why does He turn His back toward us even now?

While Israel was still living in its land, the women returned through the opening of the gate of the House of the LORD, and they committed an abomination, weeping over Tammuz. But now the Jewish brethren are zealous for the Torah of the LORD and for His service, and they draw their souls near to sanctify the Name of the LORD. Throughout this month, the month of love and the days of intimacy, we offer many prayers before the LORD, and yet the wrath of the LORD has not turned away. We are still in exile, and our soil is given over to strangers. Why has all this come upon us? - Still the voice of the Jewish brethren is in my ears, the voice of weeping with which we have wept together. I have longed for and I have desired consolation. I have longed to hear the words of the bringer-of-good-news declare, "Awaken yourself to greet your beloved, and lift yourself up from the ground and return to your dwelling place."

Every single year we rise early in the month of Elul and call out, "Please seek out those who seek you ... Please awaken your dormant love, the love for the innumerable congregation."

At midnight we arise to thank and praise the LORD and to confess before Him our iniquities, for they are many. Groaning and moaning proceed from our hearts, a heart of grief over the wickedness of our actions. ... We pour out our hearts like water and cry out, "We have no merit to appease You, my master! Act for the sake of your covenant, which you made with our fathers, for upon your abundant compassion we trust."

Yet despite our prayers, we are still as we have been. Why?

The Missing Key to Repentance
The words of [Rabbi] Tanchuma will teach us, "Anyone who wants to do repentance for himself must look upon the son of David, who is the ruler and governor of the peoples, for the LORD said 'Behold, I have appointed him as a witness to the peoples' (Isaiah 55:4). When the Holy One, blessed is He, created repentance, he shone a light from Him and it was a light gleaming from one end of the universe to the opposite end. This light is a true light that comes into the world to illuminate every man, it is the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. If only the Jewish brethren had chosen this light and not rejected it! To them this light went out and it dwelled among us."

By means of repentance, which is compared to water, as it says [in Lamentations 2:19], "Pour out your heart like water," the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the water draws itself near and comes. And the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters is "the Spirit of Messiah, of which it is said [in Isaiah 11:2], 'And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on him,'" says the Midrash. I will take these words to heart. And may all the Jewish brethren listen to these words of the Midrash. May we return, and may we give our hearts to the LORD in repentance, because His right arm is outstretched to receive penitents.

My brother! Will all our weeping be in vain? Will we grow weary for nothing and give birth to panic? The LORD is righteous, loving righteous deeds and there is no end to His compassion. That which He promised He will do, and He will surely show compassion as He said. For the LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him IN TRUTH (Psalm 145:18). Please, my beloved and pleasant brothers, have pity upon your days and upon your nights. "Redeem the time!" (Ephesians 5:6). Behold! Our beloved sends his hand through the opening. The days of repentance are days of intimacy and grace. May we also cry out, "I am my beloved's." May we take the Word of the LORD as a lamp for our feet; may we walk in The Way and The Truth and The Life and then our salvation will come quickly.

Elul
I am my beloved's and my beloved's is mine.
"My beloved sent his hand through the opening and aroused my feelings for him." (Song of Songs 5:4)

"I have sought you, I have called to you, my beloved
And my feelings were aroused for you
And you will come and you will lift my glory
And I will not fail you."

"My brothers also will see you
And they will lift their eyes up to the heavens
And they will see you upon the throne of your glory
And their feelings for you will be aroused."

"Behold, I am my beloved's,"
The people of Israel will say,
"He is my majesty and glory.
And through His covenant-devotion
I will be redeemed from trouble."

And our Master will answer us from the heights,
"I have chosen you, O Israel.
If your feelings are aroused for me
I will come to you and you will be redeemed."

Ben Yisrael.